“Losing human lives is always an irreparable tragedy,” stated the president of the Regional Legislative Assembly, emphasizing that “these occurrences have a devastating impact on affected families and communities, both socially, economically, and emotionally, leaving indelible marks.”
In a press release, Luís Garcia also expressed his solidarity with the firefighter teams, emergency services, and civilians who, “with enormous sacrifice and courage, continue to fight the flames under extremely difficult conditions,” referring to the strong winds that have made controlling the fires challenging.
The president of the Azorean parliament lamented that “these tragedies continue to happen frequently,” advocating for the need to conduct “a rigorous, urgent, and effective reflection on forest fire prevention and management to avoid or minimize future disasters of this magnitude.”
Luís Garcia also noted “the importance of implementing concrete and long-term measures” to protect populations and territories most vulnerable to this type of catastrophe.
The president of the Legislative Assembly sent a message of strength and hope to the affected populations and professionals on the front lines fighting this calamity, wishing “a quick recovery and a swift return to normalcy.”
Seven people have died and about 50 have been injured in the fires that have been affecting the North and Central regions of the country since Sunday, in the districts of Aveiro, Porto, Vila Real, Braga, and Viseu. The fires have destroyed dozens of houses and forced the closure of roads and highways.
The burned area in mainland Portugal since Sunday exceeds 62,000 hectares, according to the European Copernicus system, which shows that in the North and Central regions, 47,376 hectares have already burned.
The Government declared a state of calamity in all municipalities affected by the fires in recent days and extended the state of alert until Thursday, given the weather forecasts.
